Best Laid Plans (Often Go Awry)
by Kuailong
Summary: Sometimes Tony is a bit stupid. The team gets that, accepts it. But this time, Tony has gone too far. And if he survives this latest stupid move, he'll be hearing about it from the entire team. For a long time to come. OR That time Tony let the arc reactor housing get infected and thoroughly freaked the rest of the team out.
1. Chapter 1

Natasha let out a long, drawn out sigh as the elevator took her to her floor. As soon as the doors opened, she stepped inside and let her duffel drop. She'd take care of it later; the boys knew not to touch her stuff. She hadn't had to break any hands, at least not yet. Damn, she was tired. Week long missions tended to drain her reserves, and frankly all she wanted to do was eat and sleep for an entire day.

"JARVIS? Where is everyone?" She asked, entirely too used to the A.I. He had initially greeted her when she returned, but her brain had needed to catch up to the rest of her. Leaning against the wall, she waited for the answer.

"Doctor Banner, Thor and Captain Rogers are out to lunch at the moment. Agent Barton is on a mission for SHIELD. I believe Mister Stark is in his lab." The last sentence startled Natasha's brain into gear.

"You believe? JARVIS, why don't you know for sure?" She called, slightly alarmed that the A.I. couldn't place his creator.

"Mister Stark shut off my access to the lab late last night." The A.I. stated, and damned if Natasha could notice a hint of worry in the mechanical voice. Something was off, Stark never worked without JARVIS.

"Do you know why he did that?" She asked, already heading back into the elevator. She was going to check on Stark now, and wring his neck if nothing was wrong.

"Mister Stark was starting to exhibit signs of a cold, and when I insisted he rest, he shut off my access. I have not heard from him since, nor have I detected him leaving his lab." There was definitely a hint of worry in JARVIS's voice, and Natasha recalled a conversation with Stark on how he wasn't sure how JARVIS inflected emotion, but he was damn proud of the fact. She shook her head as the elevator took her down to the level where Tony's lab was located. She swore she was going to wring Stark's neck for this, provided he was alright. And that was the kicker, wasn't it? She was genuinely worried for the engineer.

The elevator soon reached it's destination and she strode out, walking over to the door of Stark's lab. She tried the door, not surprised it was locked. She entered her passcode, this time surprised it was blocked as well. She shook her head and keyed in the emergency override, grateful that finally worked. The lab was eerily silent, of both music and sounds of work. In fact, the lights were dim and the shades drawn. Something was definitely off; she pulled out her gun and stalked inside, senses alert for any danger. She soon came across Stark, slumped over his workbench. That in itself wasn't unusual, the team often found Stark asleep down here.

"Stark?" She called as she approached him, and that was weird. He usually reacted to his name, but the form before her was completely still. Her stomach dropped, she couldn't even tell if he was breathing. Forgoing all caution, she rushed to his side laid a hand on his shoulder. She swore when she felt the heat radiating off of him. At least he was breathing, even if it was a little labored. When she went to put a hand on his chest to lean him back, he flinched. And it felt warmer than the rest of him. Biting back a curse, she roughly jerked his shirt up. It was a gruesome sight. The skin around the arc reactor was red and puckered. There was pus crusted around it as well. It was in the reactor housing itself too. She hissed at the sight, worry increasing tenfold.

One hand still supporting the unconscious Tony she pulled out her phone and fired off a mass text to Steve, Bruce and Thor. _Something's up with Stark. Need Bruce ASAP. –NR. _She hoped one of them had their phone; all three were prone to forget. She gathered Stark in her arms, not being the first time she had to carry him, though she wished it were under different circumstances. She took off towards the elevator, heading to the medical floor. It wasn't much of one, but they had all decided Bruce was a better option than a hospital, so Tony had set Bruce up with a floor full of medical supplies and gear. Once she got there she headed for the largest room, setting Tony down on one of the gurneys. Expertly she stripped him down to his boxers, tossing the clothes on a nearby chair.

Her phone had buzzed while she was carrying Tony, so she pulled it out and checked. _On our way. ETA fifteen.–SR. _Natasha breathed a sigh of relief that one of them had their phone. Her medical knowledge was slim, and the best she could do was soak a cloth in cold water and settle it across Tony's brow. It concerned her that he hadn't moved with the exception of the flinch. She had an inkling of what was wrong, but she sincerely hoped she was wrong. An infection under the arc reactor could very well be deadly; she'd seen lesser infections claim lives. She settled down in one of the nearby chairs, hating that she had to wait. About ten minutes in, Tony started thrashing and mumbling incoherently. Natasha shot up and pinned him to the cot, not entirely sure what to do beside keep him from hurting himself.

"Stark? Tony?" She tried calling his name, cupping his face with one of her hands. It garnered no response. She kept him pinned to the bed as he thrashed weakly. She swore again, this looked pretty damn bad. Pepper was away on business, but she made a note to call the other woman once Bruce had checked out Tony.

"Hang in there, Tony." She said softly as the thrashing slowed down until he was still once more. She didn't like how hot he felt, it worried her the most. Finally she heard footsteps in the hallway, and the door practically flew open to let her teammates in. She pulled back, turning to Bruce and talking to him.

"I found him like this, he just had some sort of seizure or something." She said as Bruce made his way to Tony's side. As soon as Bruce felt Tony's skin, he was barking out orders.

"Steve, Thor. Go get as much ice as you can. Ice packs too. Hurry. Natasha, dig me out a saline drip and IV kit. JARVIS, I need you to monitor his vitals." His voice was brisk, and the rest rushed to obey. His stomach dropped when he saw the condition of the arc reactor. He swore vibrantly in Swahili, Natasha raising her eyebrow at him for that. He gave Tony one more glance before going to the other end of the room and setting up a tray with supplies. By the time he was ready, Thor and Steve had returned with bags of ice and ice packs.

"Place them under his armpits and groin, the bigger ones. Everything else put around his body, chest mainly." He called, dragging the tray over. He nodded at Natasha, who had already gotten the IV started. He slipped on rubber gloves and got to work. First he popped the arc reactor out, careful to keep it connected. He frowned at what he found, Steve going a little green at the sight. The cavity was leaking pus, a yellowy greenish fluid, and Bruce wrinkled his nose at the stench. He got to work cleaning it out with sterile cloths and disinfectant.

"Natasha, get a bag of antibiotics and get it started." He paused in his work, placing a hand flat against Tony's chest. "And get him on some oxygen." He added, even as Natasha got to work. Bruce shook his head; he was going to give Tony an extensive lecture when he was recovered. A small part of his mind supplied 'if he recovers'. Bruce shoved that thought away and got back to cleaning out Tony's chest. When he had first had to replace the reactor for Tony he had been horrified to see how deep the hole went. Thankfully, he was used to it by now. Well, as used as one could get to a four inch deep hole in one's best friend's chest.

It took a good twenty minutes of cleaning for Bruce to be satisfied. As a precaution he packed the cavity with gauze soaked in antibiotics. He'd cleaned the reactor itself in the process, and spread an antibiotic cream around the edges of the housing. He was pleased to see Tony's breathing had eased with the aid of the oxygen mask. He was less than pleased to note the other man's temperature had not dropped; his body heat was melting the ice. He turned to see Steve and Thor standing off to the side.

"We're going to need more ice. Go to the other floors if you have to." Bruce said, glancing at one of the screens above the bed. He was grateful to see JARVIS had accessed it and was displaying Tony's vitals. He frowned at the results, though. He walked over to where he kept the medication. He pulled out a vial and filled a syringe, returning to Tony's side. He swiftly injected the syringe into one of the IV ports.

"How is he?" Nat asked softly. Bruce looked up and was startled to see genuine concern on her face. He glanced at Tony and then back to Natasha.

"He's going to be in danger if we can't bring his temperature down. I don't know how long he's been like this, but the infection is pretty far along." The doctor said solemnly. Twice more they packed Tony with ice, Bruce's worry growing each time as it failed to bring down Tony's temperature. He was about to have Thor and Steve start an ice bath when JARVIS interrupted his thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

"Doctor Banner, Mister Stark's heart rate is rapidly declining." Well, that was unwelcome news to Bruce. He turned to Natasha.

"Go get the crash cart from the other room. You know what it looks like, right?" She nodded, even as she took off. As he spoke, the monitor beside Tony sounded its alarm. Bruce fought down panic and swore long and fluently in at least three separate languages. He reached across Tony's chest and disconnected the arc reactor before turning to Steve.

"You know CPR, right?" Steve nodded, more than a little panicked himself.

"Good, do it." Bruce barked out, his voice an octave lower than normal. He turned and moved to the other side of the room, even as Steve started compressions. He was going to ream Tony a new one after this stunt. He dug out what he needed and rushed to the head of Tony's bed.

"Thor, see that machine over there? Bring it here." He waved a hand out to indicate what he wanted as he tipped Tony's head back with the other hand. He wasn't very gentle as he inserted the endotracheal tube, time was of the essence. As it was, Bruce was doing everything he could to keep the Hulk at bay. He reached over to the machine Thor had brought and hooked it up to Tony. Good, that was taken care of. The ventilator would feed Tony oxygen, one less problem to worry about at the moment. He turned swiftly, almost slamming into Natasha. She held out the paddles to him, gel already on. One day he would ask Natasha how she knew so much, but today was not that day. Turning to Steve he waved the other man off. He rubbed the paddles together and placed them against Tony's chest, hating how it made his friend's body jerk. Bruce looked up hopefully at the screen, frowning when it didn't have the results he wanted. He nodded at Steve to continue.

"Damn it, Tony." He snarled, rifling through the drawers of the cart, finally pulling out what he wanted. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Thor, standing off to the side and looking very confused. Well, he couldn't address that now. He ripped open the package in his hands. Bruce waved off Steve once more, sliding the needle into Tony's heart and injecting. He picked up the paddles once more, this time getting the results he wanted. There was a collective sigh of relief as Tony's heart stuttered back into life. He still didn't like how hot Tony felt, but they could handle that. He quickly reconnected the arc reactor, still leaving it hanging from the wires.

"Steve, Thor. There's a large tub in the other room, bring it in here. Fill it was the coldest water you can get and the rest of the ice." He said. He turned to find Natasha looking at him with a peculiar expression.

"Can you go grab towels and another pair of boxers for him?" The woman nodded and slipped out. Bruce braced himself against the bed and sighed.

"Damn it, Tony, you're lucky I have such good control." He muttered. He reached up and smoothed back Tony's sweaty hair. Thor and Steve had returned with the tub and had begun filling it. Between the two of them it didn't take long. Bruce checked the arc reactor cavity before taping plastic into place and securing the reactor.

"Steve, can you get him in the tub? Gently, and you're going to need to hold him up in it. And watch the tubing." He elected to leave Tony's boxers on, what modesty he was preserving he didn't know. Steve nodded and was extremely gentle when handling the engineer, Bruce expected nothing less. As soon as Tony was settled into the tub, Steve knelt beside it to hold him upright, the captain spoke.

"Bruce, is he going to be alright now?" Steve's voice was hesitant, and his concern was evident on his face and in his voice. Bruce paused, kneeling on the other side of the tub.

"This should bring his temperature down, that's the main concern right now. The infection is far along, but I'm confident we can overcome that as well." Bruce tried to speak with confidence. He was trying to put his team at ease. Thor still looked very confused, and finally he spoke.

"What has happened?" Bruce couldn't recall the last time Thor spoke so quietly, usually the god was loud and boisterous. It occurred to Bruce that maybe he hadn't seen illness before. Bruce turned and looked up at Thor.

"Tony has an infection. It's serious. He also has a very high fever from the infection, and it's causing his body to shut down. I'm not going to lie, Thor, it looks pretty bad. But Tony was healthy beforehand, and he's strong. He should pull through." When he was finished addressing Thor, he turned back to Tony and felt his skin.

"His temperature has dropped." He said, relieved. Steve smiled, and Thor looked a little less concerned. Natasha walked in just in time to hear Bruce's words and she cracked a small smile. She laid out the towels and draped the clean underwear over an empty chair. He had decided to leave Tony in for a few more minutes.

"I'm going to call Pepper. And then tell Coulson we'll be unavailable for a while yet. Do you know when Clint is due home?" Natasha spoke even as she pulled out her cell phone.

"Tomorrow." Steve answered, even as she strode out into the hall to make the calls. She didn't take long and was soon back in the room, kneeling beside Bruce.

"Pepper's flying in tomorrow, she's not happy. Coulson says he's got the X-Men and Fantastic Four on call, we're covered for a few days. He also said he'll be around tomorrow to check on us. And Tony. He doesn't sound happy either." She hugged her arms to herself as she spoke. It told them how worried she was. Bruce nodded, feeling Tony's forehead once more.

"Let's get him out and dried off." He said, Natasha standing up with him. Steve carefully extracted Tony from the tub and held him while Natasha and Bruce grabbed towels and dried him off. They waited until Steve set Tony down to strip him of his boxers and slide new ones on. Bruce grabbed a sheet and spread it over Tony's legs. He peeled back the plastic sealing Tony's chest cavity and really inspected it. He pulled out the packing and checked that as well. It was looking alright. Not the best, but Bruce conceded it could look worse. He packed it with fresh gauze and reapplied cream to the area around the casing. He then pulled the sheet up to Tony's chest and settled down on a chair. Natasha tapped him on the shoulder and he turned. She held up two fresh IV bags and he nodded. He checked his watch and wasn't very surprised to find it had passed dinner. He looked over at Natasha as she changed out the IV bags.

"You all should go get something to eat. And you should get some rest. It's going to be a long night." Bruce said. Natasha nodded as she finished, turning to Steve for direction.

"One of us will bring you down something, Bruce. And then someone will come and relieve you so you can rest as well in a couple of hours." the captain said, and the rest nodded. They were used to deferring to him in battle, and it had carried over to most other situations. Bruce sank into the chair as the rest of the team departed.

"Tony, you may not believe it, but you have a hell of a lot of luck." He said softly, settling in for the long haul.


	3. Chapter 3

Natasha returned roughly two hours later with a tray of food for Bruce. She sat down beside him, rather than leaving. She was silent while he ate, but they had come to expect that from her. She spoke after he had finished and set the tray aside.

"It's not going to happen again, is it?" Her voice was quiet, hesitant. Bruce shook his head.

"No. We've got his temperature down and we can use drugs to keep it down. That's what caused the heart failure. I think we've caught the infection early enough that we can prevent it from reaching his heart. It's going to be close though. He shouldn't be left alone right now. And I'm going to be truthful, Natasha, his lack of response is worrying. He should have at least responded to the ice bath." He nodded at the third IV bag he had hooked up. He then glanced over at the monitor, frowning at how weak Tony's vitals were.

"I had noticed that. He flinched when I initially touched him, but then nothing." Her voice was still quiet, and although Bruce was used to her being quiet, this was a different sort. She turned and eyed him.

"You're leaving something out. What is it?" Bruce shouldn't be shocked she could tell, and he sighed.

"He's borderline comatose. He should come around when we have the infection more under control, though. It's his body's way or protecting itself, right now. He's strong, Natasha. He survived having the arc reactor installed, and he's going to survive this." At the moment the rest of the team strode in, overloaded with blankets and pillows and Thor's arms full of snacks.

"And then we'll make sure it never happens again, because that's what we do." Steve said, handing off a blanket and pillow to both Natasha and Bruce. They took them while Bruce looked incredulously at the rest of the team.

"You're sleeping down here? There are plenty of chairs, but surely you want your own beds." Bruce said, watching as Thor set down his armful on a nearby counter and settling into a chair with his own blanket.

"We talked and decided none of us really want Tony out of our sight right now." Steve spoke while Thor nodded solemnly. Ah, Bruce understood that.

"We'll sleep in shifts, you as well Bruce. I'll go first; the rest of you should sleep." The captain continued. Bruce hesitated, he understood the sentiment behind their actions, but he didn't know if he could sleep. Tony's condition was still tenuous, for all the reassurances he had given. Still, Tony looked stable, and Steve would know to wake Bruce if anything happened. They all knew that.

"Wake me up in two hours, so I can change out the gauze." He said, curling up on the chair and shrugging into the blanket. He must have been more tired than he had thought, he was instantly asleep.

Steve let out a small sigh as his team settled in for the night, carefully and quietly scooting his chair right up to Tony's bed. He frowned at Tony, the state of the engineer doing nothing to alleviate his worry. And frankly, the tube down Tony's throat scared him. In the year that they had been a team, Steve hadn't seen one of them in such bad condition. He surveyed the rest of his team, pleased to note they had all fallen asleep. He looked back to Tony, only hoping the genius would listen to the team after this stunt. He leaned back in his chair and pulled out his sketchbook. It wasn't often he caught Natasha sleeping, and he was determined to capture it on paper. Dare he say it; she looked innocent in her sleep. Young. And while Steve knew she was only slightly younger than he was, her hardened expressions melted away in sleep. Since Steve had moved on to sketching Bruce, he didn't notice when Natasha came awake until she called his name.

"Steve, it's been two hours." She stood up and walked over to him. She flipped back the sheet over Tony.

"Are you going to wake Bruce up?" Steve asked, turning to her and tilting his head back at Bruce.

"No, I can handle this. He needs his sleep." She said quietly, already slipping on gloves. He looked at her peculiarly. She was efficient in her movements, confident that she knew what she was doing. Though, to be fair, Steve had never seen her not confident in what she was doing. He watched as she pulled the packing out and cleaned out Tony's chest before packing it anew.

"How do you know all of this stuff?" He asked, even as she reapplied cream to Tony's chest. He wasn't afraid to ask her, she would tell him if she didn't want to share. She peeled back the gloves and turned to look at him.

"When I was KGB I often had to tend my own wounds. They didn't take care of their agents. It was learn or die. I'll admit I don't know that much, but I know the basics. And I've watched Bruce work." She went back to her chair and curled up.

"Wake me in two hours; I'll take the next watch." She said quietly, just loud enough for Steve to hear. Steve watched in fascination at how she fell asleep instantly. Another piece to the puzzle that was Natasha. He turned back to Bruce and resumed his sketching. He wasn't even remotely surprised to find two hours later Natasha was awake.

"Get some sleep." She told him as they traded chairs. He obliged, feeling a little drained himself. He had some trouble falling asleep, but that was normal. As he drifted off he could have sworn he heard Natasha quietly speaking Russian.

Natasha sighed as Steve took the other chair; the whole situation was a mess. Without much thought she started quietly berating Tony in Russian. She knew he could speak it a bit of it, but she was doing it more for her own piece of mind. She wouldn't outright admit it, but Tony had given her quite the scare. She couldn't exactly tell when she started caring for the other Avengers. Maybe it had started when she and Clint moved in. She felt as strongly for her fellow Avengers as she did Clint. They were hers. All of them. She reached out and smoothed Tony's hair down.

"Don't you ever dare do that again, Tony Stark." She said quietly, gently tugging on his hair. As expected, it garnered no response. She didn't bother waking anyone else for another watch, she had plenty of sleep in her system to stay up the rest of the night. Besides, after Bruce, she was the next best person to watch after Tony. That, and she was silent. She managed to change all three IV bags without waking a single member of her team. It was around dawn when Bruce finally stirred. He sat upright and looked around, and Natasha found he looked kind of adorable half asleep. More rumpled than usual. He caught her eyes and his widened.

"Why didn't you wake me?" He asked, voice rough from sleep. He stood up and walked over to Natasha.

"I handled it. There was less pus each time." She said, tilting her head towards Tony. Bruce sighed and did a check of Tony himself.

"He's definitely stronger." He commented, glancing at the monitor beside Tony. At the moment, the door to the room opened and a very bedraggled Clint Barton walked in. He took one look at the room and Tony and muttered.

"Well, shit." Was his response. He looked at Bruce and gave a lopsided grin.

"Hey, doc. I need some patchin' up. And then you can tell me just what the hell happened." He said, shuffling over to an empty bed and hopping up onto it, careful to keep one arm pinned to his chest.


	4. Chapter 4

Clint listened carefully as Natasha filled him in while Bruce was patching him up.

"His heart stopped?!" Clint interrupted Natasha, his outburst loud enough to wake Steve. Steve sat up and nodded at Clint by way of greeting.

"Yes, Clint. But he's going to be fine." Natasha said evenly, used to dealing with Clint's outbursts. Clint looked from Tony and then back to her.

"He doesn't look fine, Tash. He's got a fucking tube down his throat. He looks like shit." He hissed as Bruce touched a tender spot. Bruce paused and looked up at Clint.

"That's a precautionary measure, to make sure he's getting enough oxygen. He really is going to be fine, Clint." Bruce peeled Clint out of his vest as he spoke. He frowned at the state of Clint's back.

"How did this even happen?" He asked as he started cleaning out the large gashes on the archer's back.

"I fell down some stairs." He responded dismissively. Natasha stared at him and he could feel Bruce doing the same to his back.

"Ok, fine. Don't gang up on me. I fell down two flights of stairs and through a window. But the window was only a few feet off of the ground!" Natasha continued to stare at him. Damn her, Clint thought.

"After a bomb exploded." He finished lamely. She nodded at him. Bruce sighed and shook his head as he finished stitching up Clint's back.

"Nothing's broken, just some cuts and bruises." He informed the archer, moving back to face Clint. The other man gave Bruce a look, and it was all Bruce could do to keep a straight face. Clint could be so easy to read sometimes.

"Clint, Tony is going to be fine. I know it looks bad, but he really is getting better." He soothed the archer. He probed Clint's shoulder.

"This, however, is dislocated. You know the drill." Clint nodded, already gritting his teeth. Bruce knew without asking Clint would refuse anything for the pain, Bruce had managed to get away with local on his back only because Clint was preoccupied. With practiced ease Bruce popped Clint's shoulder back into the socket, a grunt being the only response from the archer. Bruce dug around and handed Clint a sling. Clint nearly refused it, but Bruce gave him a look so he complied. Bruce turned to Natasha.

"You should go get some breakfast." He said, returning to Tony's side.

"No need, friend Bruce." Thor boomed, still fairly quiet for him, pointing to the counter where he had laid snacks the night before. Bruce hadn't taken a closer look before but now he did, staring at the impossibly large amount and variety of pop tarts.

"Thor, pop tarts aren't exactly –" Bruce started.

"Pop tarts are perfect, big guy." Clint interrupted, hoping down and making his way to the counter. Natasha hid a small smile and followed behind him. Bruce shrugged, knowing a lost battle when he saw one. Instead, he turned to Tony and slipped on gloves. He did another cleanout of Tony's chest, Natasha popping up behind him part of the way finished.

"It's looking better." She said, and Bruce was once again grateful for his control. He nodded as he continued to work.

"It is. It's mostly under control now." He answered, pausing suddenly when Tony flinched slightly.

"Did he just?" She asked, looking from Tony to Bruce.

"He did. That's a good sign. It means he's waking up." Bruce probed deeper as he cleaned, eliciting a larger flinch from Tony. He finished up and repacked the cavity. Natasha smiled softly and turned to return to the rest of her team. They were home and relatively safe, she could relax and joke with them. She strolled over to where the rest of the guys were clustered around the pop tarts, in various stages of eating them. She laughed at Thor, he always managed to get crumbs in his beard. Clint turned to greet her.

"Coulson's coming over later. He's cleaning up the mess Sitwell made of my op. Sitwell's a good guy, but he can't manage me." Clint sighed around the pop tart, freely speaking with a mouthful.

"I'm sure you make it easy for him too, right, _Barton?_" She countered, picking up a package herself.

"He's not Coulson." Clint muttered, and Natasha shot him a look. She turned to Steve.

"I want to see the picture." She held her hand out and asked out of the blue. Steve paused, pop tart halfway to his mouth.

"I really shouldn't be surprised you could tell. I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist catching you asleep." Natasha gave him a soft smile.

"I said I wanted to see it, Steve. Not take it. I don't mind. Not with you guys." The last part was added softly, even as Steve handed over his sketchbook. Natasha flipped through it, gently. She enjoyed Steve's work, he had an eye for it. Another soft smile graced her lips as she found the pictures he had drawn the previous night. Clint peered over her shoulder and whistled.

"You don't often sleep like that, Tash. You must have been exhausted. Hey!" Clint shouted that last part as Natasha elbowed him in the gut. She closed the book and handed it back. She snagged a packet of pop tarts and headed back over to Bruce, the rest trailing behind her. She paused; pleased to see Tony was simply on an oxygen cannula. She handed off a packet of pop tarts to Bruce, seating herself beside him. The rest of the team took chairs around and sat down.

"He should wake up soon." Bruce said, absently tearing into the pop tarts. They sat in silence, Bruce and Natasha eating quietly. Steve, Clint and Thor soon struck up a conversation between themselves, Natasha didn't pay much attention. Natasha found she enjoyed Bruce's company, his quiet and calm demeanor. Despite the rocky start to their friendship, Natasha found herself more often than not in Bruce's company. He, ironically, had a very calming presence. Natasha's attention was on Bruce when Tony's hand moved, but Bruce had been watching. He instantly shot up and placed himself level with Tony's face.

"Tony, can you hear me?" He called out, and the conversation around them died down. Bruce slid his hand under Tony's.

"Guh?" Was Tony's intelligent response. He managed to drag his eyes open, coming eye to eye with Bruce.

"Th'fuck?" He slurred, his unoccupied hand reaching up to touch the arc reactor hanging from his chest.

"Easy, Tony." Bruce soothed, catching Tony's other hand in his grip. Tony blinked in response. He was confused and sore. He also couldn't figure out why Bruce was letting his arc reactor hang like it was.

"What happened?" His words were slow and deliberate.


	5. Chapter 5

Bruce looked at the rest of his team then back to Tony. He sighed.

"What was so important that you let the arc reactor get infected, Tony?" He asked, He let go of both of Tony's hands and sat back down. Tony looked bewildered for a moment before it dawned on him.

"Oh." He started to push himself off of the bed but Natasha shot up and pinned him down. He looked at her, took a good look at her face, and his protests died in his throat.

"The new communication system. I was working on that. I must have gotten preoccupied." Again, he spoke slow and deliberate. Natasha leveled a glare at him as he spoke. He flinched away from her.

"Hey! It wasn't on purpose. I just sort of skipped a few cleanings. I didn't think it would be such a big deal." He responded defensively. He shrugged off her hands and scooted upright. Bruce sighed and shook his head.

"Tony, you nearly died. It's a very big deal." Bruce said, already exasperated with the engineer. Tony flinched again, this time at Bruce's tone of voice.

"But look, I'm fine. I'm good to go." Tony said dismissively, even as he reached across his chest to pop the reactor back in. Bruce caught his hands and prevented that from happening.

"No, you're not. And that's not going back in until the infection is completely gone. You're going to stay right here and heal properly. If you're good, you can have a tablet. But that's it." Bruce's tone brooked no argument and Tony stopped trying to break his hands free. He finally paused and looked around at the rest of his team. His eyes settled on Clint and he grinned.

"What the hell happened to you, bird brain?" He prodded. Clint gave him a shit-eating grin.

"Fell down some stairs and I'm still in better shape than you, shell head." He responded, still grinning. The entire team turned as the door flew open and a rather irate Pepper Potts stormed in. Everyone besides Bruce and Tony instinctively took a step back.

"Anthony Stark! I can't believe you! We leave you alone for a few days, a few hours, and you manage to do this. Do we need to hire you a full time babysitter? You turned off JARVIS! I swear, Tony, I'm going to lock you in a room with no windows and no electronics until you learn how to take care of yourself longer than five minutes!" Nobody said anything, letting Pepper rant at Tony, who finally looked chagrined. He was pressed against the bed, as if the CEO's words were a physical force pinning him back. Phil Coulson followed behind at a sedate pace, only Clint and Natasha were able to tell just how angry he was. They both took another step back, dragging Steve and Thor with them. Coulson strode up to beside Tony and dropped a pile of folders in his lap.

"Paperwork, Coulson? I didn't know you cared…." Tony trailed off at the look the agent was giving him. Pepper's explosive anger he could deal with, Coulson's silent fuming was a new and unknown phenomenon.

"Don't do it again, Stark. Or I'll make good on my earlier threat. Except this time you will subjected to The Bachelorette." He said dryly, nodding to the others.

"You're covered for a week." He added before leaving. Tony watched him leave, wondering just what the hell that meant. He turned back to Pepper. She glared at him.

"I didn't realize it would turn into this." He said by way of an apology. Pepper sighed and visibly deflated.

"Tony, with you I've come to expect certain things. But I do not welcome calls in the middle of the night telling me you've let the giant hole in your chest become infected. You need to take better care of yourself." Tony knew she cared, even after they had broken up. Steve spoke up finally.

"We're not letting you do this again, Tony." The rest of the team murmured their assent. Pepper excused herself, saying she needed to take care of Stark Industries business.

Over the next few days Tony much improved and Bruce, true to his word, let the engineer have a tablet while making him stay on the medical floor. The second day he tried to escape.

"Stark, what do you think you're doing?" Natasha had caught him trying to make his way to the elevator. Somehow, he had procured clothing, but that was the least of Natasha's worries at the moment. She snagged the back of his collar and all but towed him back to his bed. Tony was still quite weak, and even if he had been at full strength, she would have had no problem manhandling him back into the bed. She then, rather creatively Tony thought, tied him to the bed. Enough that he could move, but couldn't leave the bed.

"I have Bruce's permission to do this, if it will keep your ass in bed long enough to heal." She said, crossing her arms over her chest. Tony wisely kept silent, because contrary to popular belief he did have some self-preservation skills. Which meant not angering Natasha. Tony petulantly picked up his tablet and buried his attention into it.

The rest of Tony's convalescence was fairly uneventful. He'd learned his lesson well enough, and the Avengers themselves didn't have a single call. Most of their time was spent keeping Tony occupied, a partial reason there was not a second escape attempt. It didn't take long for everything to settle back into routine, with the exception of the Avengers keeping an extra eye on their resident engineer. If Tony noticed that, he didn't comment.

Note: This is part of a series, next story will be called Luck of the Draw and will be Natasha centric.


End file.
